House Of Terror Hillyard Area Neighbors Angry And Fearful After Murder Of Teenagers On Front Porch

Before Michelle and Paul Roberts moved from California to Spokane this February, they checked everything they could about the city’s Hillyard neighborhood: crime statistics, schools, churches, clubs.

Surrounding the house they bought at the corner of Central Avenue and Regal Street, they saw a working-class neighborhood where people have owned homes for 20 years or more. Lawns are mowed, ice cream trucks waddle by regularly and kids splash at the pool around the corner.

Two weeks ago, when two teenagers were murdered four houses down the street, the idyllic image the Roberts thought they were buying was shattered.

“We moved up here to get away from that crap, and here it is again,” said Michelle Roberts.

The initial shooting left residents shocked and fearful. In the weeks since the murders, residents have become increasingly angry.

The house at 2928 E. Central that was the site of the murders continues to be a problem for neighbors. They say packs of youths come and go and cars headed for the house screech through the neighborhood at odd hours.

Friday night, a brawl erupted in front of the house. Neighbors said it looked like a fight between “gang-bangers.”

Police make stops by the house, but neighborhood residents say they are living as hostages in their own homes after the sun goes down.

“Everyone is terrified and that’s not right,” said Tony McNerney, who has lived at 2924 E. Columbia for 25 years.

Dick Cottam, spokesman for the Spokane Police Department, said police know the house is a nuisance for neighbors, but are tied up with “life-threatening things.”

“The consequence is that these things are not a very high priority,” said Cottam.

That doesn’t sit well with residents of the neighborhood. During the shooting spree Aug. 9 that killed the two teenagers and wounded another, bullets struck three other homes and an apartment complex.

Walter Neville, who since 1980 has lived in a house just two doors down, said the neighborhood “has shut down” out of fear. He said Monday he plans to move and that he was going house-hunting in Cusick that day. Meanwhile, he said he will “buy myself an AK-47” for protection.

“What would you do?” said Neville, 70, pointing to bullet holes in his bedroom window left by the shooting.

Alaine Ward won’t let her 7-year-old son, Jordan, bicycle around the block. Others won’t open their doors, even to weed their sculpted gardens.

Percy Watkins, the Police Department’s neighborhood resource officer for Hillyard, said he understands the residents’ frustration.

“As soon as the police left (on Aug. 10), it was business as usual,” said Watkins.

At a meeting at the COPS Northeast station this Monday to address the neighborhood problem, Watkins gave residents information about the Safe Streets Now program, started in Oakland, Calif., to rid neighborhoods of drug houses.

Police say the program is a good way to force the owner of the rental house, Phillip C. Kramer, to evict the current resident, Jan Denny.

Phillip Kramer said he knows of the problems at the house and has warned Denny that “activities there needed to cease.”

Kramer said he likes and empathizes with Denny, a single mother, but is “leaning toward eviction.

“My heart really went out to them, but I can’t continue to carry their burden,” Kramer said.

Denny, mother of 13-year-old Amanda Denny, who was injured in the shooting, did not respond to requests for an interview.

The Safe Streets program helps neighborhoods push a civil suit against the house for being a public nuisance. That method requires neighbors to document instances of public nuisance.

That paperwork lays groundwork for legal action in small claims court, where neighbors affected by public nuisance can ask for $2,500 per person in damages.

The method has worked in at least two Spokane neighborhoods, including one a few blocks away.

Watkins said a ream of documentation usually convinces a landlord to evict a troublesome tenant before a case goes to court.

But documenting activity takes a large commitment from neighbors, including around-the-clock surveillance. Michelle Roberts says she is angry enough to spend whatever time is necessary.

Last week, Paul Roberts marched four doors down and confronted youths at the house after a drag racing car skidded onto his freshly-mowed lawn.

As he was doing that, Michelle Roberts had to comfort their 7-yearold son, who was concerned for his father’s safety.

“You shouldn’t have to reassure them that Daddy is not going to get shot,” said Michelle Roberts. “Something has to be done.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo